Thursday, August 28, 2014

The
SSLUG garden at NAU meanders down a draw between a parking lot and the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, and then
pausing for a moment, it makes a left turn down a deep descent to a pleasant greensward
bordering McConnell Drive.At the pause is a shelter with several
benches for outdoor meetings and rest.In its descent it passes between the College
of Social and Behavioral Sciences and
the College of Business Administration.

A deft example of
redeeming wasted space, with the blessing of the university the garden was created
by a group of students led by Ian Dixon-McDonald to bring forth wealth out of detrital
poverty.Paradoxically, artichokes thrive
next to pumpkins while nourishing their differences in the same soil.Also, the garden is productive without profit
while renewing the land.In short, the
SSLUG garden is a statement.

The
garden’s name is one of those artificially contrived acronyms in favor nowadays.It is Students for Sustainable Living and
Urban Gardening.Slugs are garden pests
found in warmer climes, but never mind, this is a college garden.

The
buildings for the two colleges are handsomely nondescript.Straight
lined, they reflect the academic attempt rationally to understand the
irrational, that is, human behavior.

The garden’s not
rational.Like Topsy in Uncle Tom’s
Cabin, it “just growed.”It wasn’t
designed.It evolved out of a vision by
students who understood that education if just cerebral is incomplete without engaging
gardening and the land.At first glance the
garden starts at the top, but it grew from the bottom, gradually climbing up
the wasted slopes, reclaiming them as it went.

The SSLUG garden in
many ways is a return to the primitive farming methods of composting, plowing
leftover organic matter back into the ground.Along with that it is a rejection of modern industrial fertilizers and
pesticides in favor of the organic.

At the very top of
the garden are the composting bins, apparently made out of scrap lumber,
scrounged from somewhere around the university, but then again compost bins are
seldom gleamingly straight lined.

All through the
garden, even up on balconies, are various tanks and containers in which
rainwater is saved for use in the garden.Composting and saving rainwater are a part of the sustainability which
is better called renewal because we are all playing “catch up” rather than
sustaining.

There is no
apparent design to the hundreds of small beds nurtured by the various students
or to the bizarre juxtaposition types of plants.It appears haphazard to the eye, but useful
to the gardeners who want to grow the fruit, vegetables, and flowers.In short, it makes sense to anyone connected
to the land.Designer gardens are
tidy.Productive gardens aren’t.Practicality is as much a test for truth as
is coherence.

Jan
Busco, the current COG (Campus Organic Gardener), oversees and manages the
garden.She knows more about gardening
in the high country than anyone else I have ever met, and added to that, like
the land, she nourishes plants and humans with a smile that envelopes the whole
of her face.If anyone craves an
interesting, ironic, funny conversation, she’s the person to go to.She’s a beauty in jeans.

She pointed out
several examples of a slick use of the military tactic of diversion, planting a
strong plant or weed next to a weaker plant so as to draw predators away.A large purple amaranth with several holes
dotting its leaves sat cheek by jowl with some fragile lettuce.An unwanted cut-leaf viper grass gave pollen
to the bees and seeds for small birds.

As
we passed a couple of purple artichoke plants, she noticed that one of the
artichokes had been picked.She said,
“One of the reassuring things about the garden is the gardeners.They never take more than they need.They always leave something for someone
else.”

When
so many are on hell-bound drives for success, what better words to describe the
garden than that “they always leave something for someone else.”The SSLUGGERS are not only sustaining the
earth but also one another.Talk about
quality!

Saturday, August 09, 2014

On
a cold, wind-swept, winter’s day in the parking lot of Dillard’s, Mike Frankel,
the general guru and factotum of the Artists’ Coalition, along with his dog,
Satchel, a pit bull mix, asked me for a favor.He said that the Artist’s Coalition was thinking of sponsoring a tour of
several gardens.Putting his hand on my
shoulder as Satchel sidled up to me, leaning against my calf, he said, “Hey,
Dana, would you be willing for your garden to be a part of the tour.”As a member of the Artists’ Coalition, meine Űberfrau nodded, and I replied,
“Sure.I don’t see why not.”Little did I know.

I
heard nothing for a long time, and then Colleen
Tucker, a member of the Artists’ Coalition and a Master
Gardener, asked me again, this time saying that the tour would be sponsored by
the Coalition, the Master Gardeners’ Association, and Viola’s.Once again, I innocently said that I would.

The
tour itself was a delight.On a Saturday
from 11:00 to 4:00 about 250 to 300 people roamed through our front and back
yards.Nothing was pulled up or stamped
on.No one was untoward.Everyone was well-behaved.Our dogs, Katrina and Petite, stayed
upstairs, out of the way and held it in until the last couple left.As Colleen Tucker
said, “The people were mellow.”I have
never been amongst such as pleasant and warm-hearted group of people as those
with whom Gretchen and I shared our garden.We compared notes on gardening, failures, successes, and bafflements.In spite of being an old introverted curmudgeonly
Calvinist, I enjoyed everyone.MeineŰberfrau said to me afterwards, “See, I told you that you’d have a
good time.”

Years
ago while standing in a bait shop at Convict Lake, California, at the end of
fishing season and the beginning of deer hunting season, the place was a mix of
fisherman and hunters.What a contrast
of personality types!The hunters were
more on edge, aggressive and the fishermen easy going, laid back.

Gardeners
are much like fisherman, save for the fact that they don’t spin elaborations on
the truth.Of course, some tomateers
tend to brag too much about the early date and size of their tomatoes, but they
can be forgiven that since growing tomatoes is an intense love affair betwixt
the gardener and the tomato plant.Worse
yet, it is always fraught with the possibility of heartbreak so that tomateers
are always on the edge of grief.Carrots
and beans don’t promise the possibility of catastrophe.

While
in the army as a young man, I was a Sergeant/Major in a unit of hunters.We hunted human beings, such as saboteurs, deserters,
and criminals, usually with the admonition of bringing them back alive.It was called counter-intelligence.We had the aggressive mentality of conquest,
of getting someone.Not so with fishermen
and gardeners.Fishermen engage in a
battle of wits with the wily trout, and it says something about human
intelligence the frequency with which the trout wins.

Gardeners
are not in a fight with anything or anyone, save malicious bugs.Gardeners are cooperating with God’s creation.Instead
of referring to God’s creation, some people call creation by the word “nature,”
but that’s like thanking your mother-in-law for your wife.

The
fact is that gardeners are fuguing on God’s themes embedded in the
creation.They’re not conquering or
mastering it, much less destroying it.They’re
elaborating.This fact shapes their
personalities.They are a happier lot.

Getting
ready to welcome the gardeners meant time and money spiffying up the joint.Also, we called in two friends, Freddi Steele and Tam Nguyen, to help as hosts.They were indispensably gracious. It was something like getting ready for a big
party.The place had to be cleaned up,
weeds pulled, everything trimmed and fertilized, new gravel put down, and
what-have-you.It was quite an
undertaking, but it was worth it.The
party was successful, especially with such guests.They were not only mellow, they were
enjoyable.As a place to meet people,
I’ll take a group of gardeners, like the Master Gardeners, any day over
habitués swilling at a bar.